Harry Potter and the Green Dragon Curse
by Hufflepuffer
Summary: The Sorting Hat has been stolen, creating utter chaos and distress as Hogwarts begins its new term. Threats of the Dark Lord's return have become commonplace and the intensity of the situation doesn't become apparent until a Hogwarts student disappears.


Disclaimer: Oops, almost forgot to write this. I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's characters or plot elements. Umm...not sure what else I'm supposed to write here, so hopefully this will do.

A/N: This is my first shot at a fan fiction, so please be gentle! Fictionpress has really been acting up, so I came here in hopes of a fresh start. Any advice would be much appreciated, and please leave me a review!

CHAPTER ONE

DUDLEY'S BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

Harry, sitting cross-legged on his bed, scribbled furiously on his parchment. He was completing the last of his summer homework, but today his heart just wasn't in it. Dudley, his porky cousin, was downstairs celebrating his sixteenth birthday. Harry, who was less than excited anyway, had been forbidden to join the celebration.

"You," his uncle Vernon had said, leaning in close to Harry's face and pointing one pudgy finger at his chest, "you will stay in your room. You are not to make a noise. If Dudley's friends find out you're a—a—a _wizard_," he spat disgustedly, "I'll have you locked up in jail! I'll have you committed to St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys!"

Harry narrowed his eyes, itching to scream out that he didn't want to join the stupid party anyway, that he didn't want to waste his own time playing with Dudley's stupid friends, and most of all, that he was proud of being a wizard, and a good one at that. Not many students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could say they'd defeated the Dark Lord six times.

But, of course, Uncle Vernon didn't know that. Harry suspected that he wouldn't care.

Harry was at his wit's end, he felt as if he was slowly going insane. The only thing that kept him sensible was the occasional letter from Ron or Hermione. But as Ron and his family were visiting Bill, Ron's eldest brother who worked as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank, and Hermione and her parents were traveling in Italy, they scarcely wrote and Harry had to rely on Hedwig for affection.

Then, suddenly, Harry's door burst open and Dudley, who was gaining weight exponentially, squeezed his way through. "Good news, Harry," he sneered. "Aunt Marge is coming to visit! Remember her last visit, Harry? You're lucky she doesn't remember, or you'd be dinner for Ripper!"

"Duddykins," called Aunt Petunia from below, "your friends are here!"

"Be down in a sec, Mum," he yelled back. Then he turned back to Harry. "If you ruin my party, Dad says he'll send you up to live with your dirty abnormal parents!"

Harry jumped to his feet, holding out his fists, but Dudley straightened up and showed his height to be two feet taller than Harry, and his body to be roughly six feet wider.

Dudley turned and ran downstairs, every step like an earthquake. Harry grabbed his door handle and started to slam his door, but just as it reached the wall he thought better, and softly closed it. Best not to upset the Dursleys when there were only six remaining days until September first.

Hedwig flapped her wings in her cage.

"Bored, Hedwig?" Harry asked. "I know how you feel." He opened her cage and let her fly out his open window to stretch her wings.

Harry sat back down to do his homework, but his mind kept wandering to the open window. How unfair it was that Hedwig could fly away whenever she pleased, but he had to remain locked away, trapped in number 4 Privet Drive until his return to Hogwarts.

Harry Potter was indeed a highly unusual boy in many ways. While most kids looked forward to summer holiday and dreaded the start of term, Harry adored his school and wished the year would never end.

Although the Dursleys merely laughed at his school and his "condition," Harry couldn't help but to wonder whether they would not, as they swore, enjoy soaring over a roaring Quidditch pitch or discovering new and exciting creatures like Hippogriffs and centaurs and Norwegian Ridgebacks and, although not as pleasant, the Cornish pixies were still mildly amusing...that is until they lifted Neville Longbottom into the air by his ears.

Of course, Harry found one of the most interesting creatures of all to be the werewolf. It wasn't until third year that he had actually come face to face with one—he hadn't expected his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to have such a dark secret. Luckily, Snape's Wolfsbane Potion kept it under control.

Lupin wrote to Harry from time to time and sometimes Harry saw him when visiting Sirius, who was still in hiding. Harry's dreams were filled with the day when he would leave the Dursleys' and live with Sirius. But for Harry to live with Sirius, Peter Pettigrew would have to be caught, and nobody predicted that would happen in the near future.

As Harry sat, lost in his thoughts, there was a sudden outburst of screams downstairs.

Harry jumped out of his bed, anxious and weary at the same time to find out what had caused the commotion. He threw open his door to run downstairs, but he soon saw that the creature was already running up the stairs to him in a panic.

"Dobby! Dobby, what are you doing here?" Harry demanded nervously, beckoning the creature almost violently into his room. After he had closed the door he turned to Dobby. "Do you have any idea how much trouble I'm going to be in?" he cried. "What are you thinking! You know just as well as I do that you can't be seen by muggles!"

Dobby nodded. "Dobby knows, Harry! But Dobby couldn't wait! He had to tell Harry Potter the news!"

Harry stopped. He hadn't heard news from or about Hogwarts in a long time. "News? What news?" he asked excitedly.

He could hear Aunt Petunia stuttering below, trying desperately to explain to Dudley's friends the appearance of a strange creature without mentioning the words "magic" or "wizard." However, her explanation was failing greatly because, truthfully, she didn't know in the slightest what the creature was. Perhaps, she decided silently, it was just another one of Harry's freaky friends.

Vernon was thundering up the stairs.

"There's been an invasion at Hogwarts! Nobody knows who it was, but only one thing is missing. Who would invade Hogwarts and take only one thing?"

"Just be glad they only took one thing," Harry reasoned optimistically.

Dobby shook his head. "Dobby heard Dumbledore talking to the Ministry while he was bringing him tea. He said he would rather they have taken riches or valuables, it would have caused much less trouble—"

Harry interrupted impatiently, "What did they take, Dobby?"

"The Sorting Hat."

Harry had no time to wonder who would take the Sorting Hat, or what agenda would call for such an odd robbery. His door burst open and Vernon stood, fists clenched, face reddened, and temples throbbing in anger.

"You!" he screamed, pointing one accusatory finger at Harry's chest, as if he hoped a bullet would shoot from his fingertip.

However, his expression changed dramatically upon seeing Dobby, who to a muggle must have appeared as some kind of monster or slightly unimpressive beast. Vernon's mouth twisted into a forced smile and his eyes lost their contempt.

"Oh, hello. I—I was saying, H-Harry, that maybe we could go out today and buy you a new—new toy. How does that sound?"

"Er, Uncle Vernon, a toy is about eight years too late."

"Oh, right. Well," he said, straightening his shirt nervously, "you two know each other?"

Dobby nodded eagerly and proudly. "Yes sir, Dobby knows Harry Potter. Dobby is good _friends_ with Harry Potter."

While Dobby was merely bragging, Vernon found it as a threat and took a step back. "Well, I'm glad Harry has—has made new friends. Harry, your aunt and I would like to have a word—a _kind_ word—" he added eagerly, looking again reluctantly at Dobby, "with you after your friend leaves."

Vernon backed slowly and carefully out of Harry's room and closed the door quietly. Harry, who was in no hurry to face the wrath of the Dursleys, beckoned for Dobby to sit down. Dobby, who was now used to being treated as an equal, did not protest, or smack himself upside the head with a lamp, for that matter. Harry showed Dobby his Firebolt, which he hid under the loose floorboards in his room. Dobby admired it, but not nearly as much as Harry.

He pulled out the kit Hermione had bought him three years ago, the broomstick servicing kit. He put it on his lap and began to lovingly polish the handle as Dobby told him all about Hogwarts and the kitchen gossip.

"Winky," he started, "is still drinking. At this point, Dobby doubts she will ever recover."

Harry nodded sympathetically.

Dobby smiled shyly as he moved on to the next topic of conversation. "Dobby has met a new house elf. A _girl_ house elf," he added bashfully.

Harry straightened up and smiled. "Have you found yourself a girlfriend, Dobby?" he asked incredulously.

Dobby, now timid about the subject, shook his head and tried to change the subject. Harry understood and moved on.

"I was wondering, Dobby. How could somebody just walk into Hogwarts, walk into Dumbledore's office, take the sorting hat, and then again, walk out of Hogwarts, unnoticed?"

Dobby shook his head. "Nobody knows."

At that moment, Hedwig soared through the open window, the Daily Prophet clenched in her beak. She dropped it on Harry's lap and flew into her cage for some water. Harry fleetingly wondered if she was out of shape from spending so much time pent up. He had never heard of an obese owl, but, then again, he hadn't heard of Hogwarts before he was eleven.

Sure enough, plastered across the front page were pictures of Hogwarts, the empty shelf that usually held the Sorting Hat, ministry officials looking stressed and worn out. Harry skimmed the story for extra details, but it seemed that Dobby was just as informed, or uninformed, in this case, as the ministry.

Harry threw the Prophet aside after glancing haphazardly at the other stories. Dobby sat restlessly, fidgeting endlessly as he shifted from one side to the next. His little legs hung over the side of the bed and, unlike Harry's, didn't even come close to reaching the floor. Dobby turned his big eyes to Harry.

"Dobby is worried that this is only the beginning, Harry Potter, sir."

Harry nodded in agreement. "I hate to say that I think you're right."

Dobby looked distraught. "Dobby does not want to go back to being a slave, Dobby enjoys his freedom."

Harry once again peered out his open window, briefly wondering if his freedom from the Dursleys would come soon enough.

After Dobby left and the ministry official, who had apparated immediately, modified Dudley's friends' memories, Harry sat in the living room, surrounded by his uncle, aunt and cousin, all looking equally livid.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"You _ruined _my party!" screamed Dudley.

"_You_ _ruined_ his party!" shrieked Aunt Petunia.

"_You ruined his party_!" growled Uncle Vernon.

Harry cleared his throat awkwardly and stuttered to defend himself. "Well...t-technically _I _didn't ruin his party..."

But his defense only made Uncle Vernon angrier. "To your room! You can forget about dinner, breakfast, and lunch! You can _forget_ about letting that bloody owl out of its cage, and you can forget about even _thinking_ the word 'magic!'"

Harry hung his head and walked dejectedly to his room. He thought he felt his stomach growl, but since he had only just eaten, he figured it was merely psychological.

Of course, the Dursleys didn't know about his secret stash of food under the floorboards, but he wasn't sure if he could survive on a day and a half of sweets and crisps.


End file.
